when i vacation, i want to have a purpose. i personally dislike vacations, where you just go to a resort and sit out on lounge chairs by a pool or on a beach and drink umbrella cocktails. personally, i hate that. i want to travel for snowboarding, for skateboarding, to go do active stuff, to go experience local flavour in a different culture. i want to taste something new. if i want to relax in the sun by a pool; heck, i can do that at home in california. i live in california; everyday can be a resort vacation. i want a new experience. anyway, my wife... it's not that she's totally that kind of person that needs to have these lazy resort vacations or anything. she also likes to do active things. however, as a health practitioner, she insisted that we seek treatment after hiking the kalalau trail since she was quite sore and pregnant. well, by doing some local searching, she found spa by the sea and made an appointment for us on a day when it was raining, on a day when we figured we'd just do some mild things like hang out at the cool kaua'i museum and do some gift shopping.
well, the spa by the sea is pretty nice. i mean, i've had a decent number of massages in my life, all because of my wife's penchant for massages. usually she books them, but i guess there were times when i was thoughtful enough to book the couples massage for us. well, she picked this one and booked this one. well, the spa by the sea is part of a pretty cool alternative (or holistic) health center. i guess the main guy in this center is a chiropractor, which is cool. there's also a guy that does like uh... chinese medicine or something and uh... maybe like cold laser therapy? i'm not too sure. anyway, we just went for the massage, you know?
since it was raining, yeah, we definitely weren't planning on a massage outdoors. they have a nice room for couples massages. i don't remember the names of our massage therapists. they were two women, both very nice and professional. by the way, i refuse to use words like "masseuse" or "masseur." i figure those words refer to people that give happy endings. only sad endings for me! i use the term "massage therapist," especially since i have friends that work in the industry. both my wife and i like hard pressure for massages. i was glad this woman, who was relatively small, could do that. i suppose that's indicative of good training. it's like how a well.trained but smaller martial artist can kick and punch harder than a big, meat head oaf. the massage was great, and i'm glad it was very complete and comprehensive. (i feel like i've been to places where they cut it short. 50 minutes should be 50 minutes.)
as other yelpers have pointed out; yes, you take off your shoes at the door, which makes perfect sense for asian guy me. i take off my shoes every time i enter my house, yes. heh, one thing though... i kind of wish they provided communal slippers at the bathroom, which some businesses would do like in korea if you were required to remove shoes. it's not that i pee on the floor, but i think most guys do. the toilet bowl is for reference only, you know? anyway, it's not that anyone necessarily peed on the floor here. the bathroom looked very clean.
everyone was very friendly at this office. the place is very clean, well.decorated, and relaxing. since my wife paid for this treatment, i don't really remember how much it cost for the couples massage. i think it was in the $225~250 range. i'm not sure; is that cheap, expensive, or average? *shrug* read more